CITIES ARE LOUD!!! Roberto Astudillo Advisors: Mark Lindquist, Daniel Phillips University of Michigan, Landscape Architecture Independent Studio Project, Winter 2019
ABSTRACT Cities are loud! But they reveal a sensory experience influenced by cultural, urban nature, and infrastructural tracks in the soundtrack of the city. Designers of the built environment have placed a strong focus on the visualization of landscape, ignoring the potential of sensory experiences. In this study, the sense of soundscape is explored through diverse outlets in the arts. The Los Angeles River, the river that is not, was the region chosen for soundscape collection, as it is a biohotspot within a sea of concrete. Through various exercises in sensing sound and translating the sense of sound, the study provides representations that construct a potentially predictive model of experimenting with design and soundscape. During the study, observations concluded various research questions, such as: How is design inclusive when not tested to the sense? How do our design decisions construct the soundtrack of the city? How will changing ecological and social systems affect the soundtrack of the city? The study concludes that landscape design shares similarities with the music score, it is the players or the landscape users that interpret our art. CITIES ARE LOUD!!!
MOVEMENTS 1.LAND-SCORE 2.LAND-COUNTERPOINT 3.LAND-IMPROV 4.LAND-CODA
ABSTRACT
LAND-SCORE The city represents a confluence of elements from the natural to the culturally present. As centers of economic and social activity, the majority of Americans live in cities, making them a common living situation for many (US Census 2010). As designers of the built environment, we are engulfed in a field geared by visual representations for landscape. Meyer’s (2008) Manifesto on Defining Beauty was a monumental description of the role of aesthetics in landscape architecture, allowing the field to appreciate aesthetic drive. In a field at the forefront of climate change resiliency and continued construction of the built environment, the role of the landscape designer has the ability to influence the dynamic characters of urban environments. Low and Kalekin-Fishman (2017) expand the notion of the built environment to addressing the senses and how they identify space. Aesthetics as an ecological service allow designers to approach design through aesthetics, using them as a framework to incorporate ecological and functional practices under an inclusive term of sustainability. The senses apply to the basic elements of observation: sight, taste, hearing, touch, and smell. Understanding the role of the sense in the built environment allow an audience to deduce their own observations and relate narrative experiences of a place (Gomes, 2017; Acosta and Duval, 2017). Similarly, the use of the senses can associate certain experiences as positive or negative, facilitating subjective judgment from the public (Weidner, 2017; Upton 2007). In this study, the auditory senses are tested as a communication in landscape analysis and intervention. The term soundscape describes the relationship between a landscape and the many sound voices it houses (Pijanowski et al. 2011). The role of soundscape in the built environment creates sensory experience that individuals associate with a distinct place (Fowler 2012). The role of moments like soundmarkers can relate to 1
many different elements, such as loud HVAC equipment on a daily commute, thus creating a “sound� diary of daily activities. The association of certain sounds becomes a social analysis that identifies perceptions in the communities. Bieletto-Bueno (2017) mapped and found that certain soundscape facilitated the categorization of neighborhood identities through a sonic heritage. The structure of physical environments along with ambient sounds of economic activity create an indefinable sense of place by observers. Lastly, the role of social sounds also relate to the actions perceived by the listener, such as ambulances, traffic, wind, or vernacular soundmarkers. Soundscape are not just noise. Cities are loud in diversity as they are in sound. Warren et al. (2006) explores how the role of urban bioacoustics influences local wildlife. Urban wildlife demonstrate altered behavior and the factors that influence these include the structure of the built environment, traffic congestion, and the spatial time endured in noisy environments. Pijanowski et al. (2011) and Trauc and Barret (2011) proposed that soundscape ecology is a part of the study of landscape ecology, providing a conceptual framework that includes: biological systems (biophony), geo-spatial areas (geophony), and human systems (anthrophony). The study of soundscape ecology focuses on potential measurements in the field. As a transdisciplinary field, the role of soundscape ecology is essential towards the sustainability framework. The role of soundscape ecology is essential towards understanding the effects of landscape actions on ecological interactions, social inclusivity, and the definition of healthy environments (Pijanowski et al. 2011). Interpretations of landscape experience at a multisensory level would provide a new layer of information CITIES ARE LOUD!!!
for designers (Lindquist and Lange 2014). The role of visualizations in landscape architecture wow the public, but fail to deliver a potential diverse and inclusive sensory experience. The role of soundscape offers a wide variety of information from social perceptions to robust ecological networks. Del Tredici and Rueb (2017) explored the development of sound walks, understanding how the role sounds change the perception of individuals in a negatively perceived landscape. In their soundwalk app, the authors cataloged the diverse and historical experiences of the soundscape, giving listeners the opportunity to hear distinct sounds. The observed reaction from listeners was one of awe, where they would remove headphones to reveal their amazement and indirectly use the app as a game to continue their sound explorations. In his 2015 TED Talk, Chris Downey spoke on Designing with the blind in mind. Discussing the senses and the complexities includes allows designers to consider another important element: How can design be and communicate inclusivity? We live in an era where disability is highlighted and celebrates the incorporation of these groups into mainstream society, but does conventional landscape design address inclusivity for the creation places? Chris Downey, a blind architect, reveals how the sense add to the reading of well-built cities. The format of cities adds to the sensory experience of individuals. The smell of a restaurant excites the stomach, the texture of certain pavements highlight a distinct place, and even the wind blowing through different trees create unique sensation for individuals. Understanding that our process as landscape designers may neglect certain groups becomes an opportunity to allow us to experience an uncomfortable situation and further transform the design process. This raises new ideas in design on whether design is visual or it is an art form, but art is an expressive situation. Evelyn Glennie, a internationally renown percussionist, reveals to us that musicians can be deaf. Through the use of the sense Glennie expresses musicianship. There is a euphoria expressed through music. Music through the senses can be touched through the vibrations, heard through frequencies, tasted or smelled by either its venue
LAND-SCORE
or event association, and seen by performance. Music is essentially an instruction on paper, it becomes an art when interpreted. So then what is a landscape design if not an artful land prescription? A place creates a sense of place when it is expressed. As landscape designers, we become artists of the land. James Corner coined the study of landscape architecture as, “the [design] of everything under the sky.” Understanding the senses, allows our design process to take on a more complex, inclusive position, where, similar to other fine arts, it requires the interpretation of our players to make our works meaningful. In this study, our program’s legacy of ecological design is tested to the sensory experience of the city. Cities are loud! And many would agree with that, but what they fail to realize is how rich and stimulating these urban ecosystems are. Focusing on sound, this study takes on the soundtrack of the built environment in the city synonymous to a concrete jungle, Los Angeles. The Los Angeles River strikes through the core of the city. The history of the region, as seen in my previous class paper about the city’s cultural ecologies, LOS ANGELES: THE SHAPE OF THE CITY AND ITS UNCONVENTIONAL GROWTH, a history of controlling nature placed this river in a concrete straitjacket, making a river that is not. A biological hot spot and a world city, Los Angeles provides a unique forum to listen. Through these soundtrack captures, the study will then approach how the senses orchestrate and draw upon these experiences. Finally, understanding from ecological design that design decisions have tradeoffs and benefits, the study projects potential design scenarios, predicting experience and soundscape. This new exploration allows the researcher to explore a conventional medium through design tools rarely considered, experiencing the landscape through perceived limitations and attempting to understand how landscape can be a fluid communication to inspire a sensory experience that resonates: what is an experience and how can we experience?
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SAN GABRIEL MOUNTAINS LOS ANGELES
BURBANK
SANTA MONICA MOUNTAINS
GLENDALE LOS ANGELES
SANTA MONICA
LONG BEACH
THE CITY WITHIN A WATERSHED
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LOS ANGELES CONCRETE/ MOUNTAINS Reyner Banham (1972; 1969), coins LA as a city of four ecologies. The city as a whole is a symbol of how cultural economies can affect the development of the urban form (Kostof 1991). The city of Los Angeles began as a small mission on the fertile ground of the LA Watershed. This allowed the region to flourish as a prime farm area. As the city expanded, the issue of water became controversial. The city’s rapid growth in the 20th century stressed water resources, leading to the city to siphon water resources and devastate other communities (Di Palma and Robinson 2018). With the control of water, the city secured its future and continued to grow. The limitation of resources and the magic of the Southern California dream shaped the development of the region (Hise 1999). The growth and influential power of Hollywood developed a city of imagined royalty, where the concept of the grand manner city was the primer image. The rapid development of LA facilitated this image of a city with Palm Tree Streetscapes, diverse architecture in the hills, and luxury boulevards connecting the city. The image of the city rested on a control of nature highlighted at its peak by McPhee (1988), documenting the beauty and dangers the city faces from its natural surroundings. The river that allowed a flourishing settlement in this region, expands from a low-flowing stream to a potentially dead rush of water that provides the basin’s essential nutrients. Despite these vulnerabilities to natural disasters (earthquakes, mudslides, catastrophic flooding, sea level rise, and others), the city of Los Angeles represents a world economic center, an immigrant heaven of the diverse future in a rapidly changing country, and a platform for innovative growth and artistic expression. The Los Angeles River Watershed represents a culturally diverse, economically vibrant area, where a bio-hotspot flourishes despite an endless landscape of concrete nestled within a rigid topography, providing a unique sense to the city.
LAND-SCORE
Cities of the Watershed Los Angeles is Highlighted. As seen, there are many municipalities located within the watershed area.
Neighborhoods of the Watershed Los Angeles Neighborhood Coverage + Surrounding Suburbs within the watershed area.
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THE STRAITJACKET The channelization of the Los Angeles River began after catastrophic floods affected the city. Led by the Army Crops of Engineers, the river management was deemed a success, paving over much of the soft-bottom areas. One of the few area remaining natural areas but still included as part of the management system, was the Sepulveda Basin. In this map, the various symbols represent the different interventions approached by the designers. The management of the river was so successful, interventions are hidden or ingrained into the urban form of the city, depriving the river of its identity. These interventions include: waterfalls, gages, valves, and dams. The image to the right is at the headwaters of the river, demonstrating the level of channelization.
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LAND-SCORE
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DIVERSITIES IN THE WATERSHED The city of Los Angeles includes an over 37% international-born population, making it one of the largest groups among American Cities (US Census, 2012). The city includes ethnicities from every single continent with immigrants from Mexico, the Philippines, and China ranking as the largest. The city is also unique as it is a majority-minority city, with people of color accounting for over 70% of the total population. The city also has the largest non-English speaking population with 60% of individuals speaking a different language. Spanish is the most spoken language, other than English. The sprawling form of the city allowed for the creation of ethnic enclaves that have preserved much of their distinct culture, possibly allowing these groups to maintain vibrant cultures as oppose to assimilating to traditional American customs. Some of these neighborhoods include:
Mural Building in Silver Lake on Sunset
• Koreatown • Boyle Heights • Chinatown • Little Tokyo • Thai Town • Leimert Park Village • Little Armenia • Little Ethiopia • Filipinotown • Cambodia Town • Little India While the status of many of these neighborhoods remain unofficial, the enclaves created around the city reflect the many immigrant groups that relocated. These distinct enclaves add another cultural layer to the already diverse city as expressed through the re-purposing of the historic architecture identified by Banham (1969) and the continued sensory experiences found in the city. Hollywood Jazz Mural at Capital Records Building
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DIVERSITY IN THE WATERSHED
LAND-SCORE
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GRIFFITH PARK GLENDALE NARROWS
ANGELES NATIONAL FOREST
STUDIO CITY RIVERWALK SEPULVEDA BASIN
ELYSIAN PARK AREA
WHITTIER NARROWS
CITIZEN SCIENCE IN THE WATERSHED
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DIVERSITIES IN THE WATERSHED TOO Los Angeles is part of the California Floristic Province, making it one of the 36 biohotspots in the world (UC Berkeley). While to many, the endless concrete jungle may be perceived as devoid of nature, aspects of the LA infrastructure allow certain species to thrive. According the LA Natural History Museum, the region is unique as many non-native species have been introduced through the many confluences that occur in the city, such as the nursery industry and ports. In some cases, these wildlife become more successful in the urban setting as oppose to their declining native areas: Slender Salamanders, Coqui Frogs, Red Crown Parrots. The Natural History Museum sought to inventory the biodiversity of the city through the help of citizen scientists and the iNaturalist species cataloging system in the BioScan Project. With the help of these amateur scientists, experts have been able to document the numerous species located in Los Angeles. This research has resulted in the discovery of multiple species, even accounting for 30 new species of Mageselia (Hartop et al. 2015). The influences on the landscape not only disrupt habitat space but also contribute new habitat for adaptable fauna to use. Through events like the City Nature Challenge, the city has spearheaded events to allow its residents to interact in the act of science discovery by using the iNaturalist app to catalogue interesting organism found in everyday life. The LA Natural History Museum led the largest public endeavor to catalogue over 200,000 organism entries throughout the city. The data in the map to the left was captured by citizen scientists and clarified by scientists. The map not only symbolizes areas of high-biodiversity but also how certain parts of the city attract citizens. Entires are spread all over the city, but the role of its iconic green spaces received greater attention. Utilizing this data facilitates the selection of key sites, that are ecologically rich and socially relevant.
Young citizen scientists cataloguing data for the BioScan Project (Image Souce: LA Natural History Museum)
LA’s FANTASTIC BEASTS
California Clapper Tail
Red Crown Parrot
Western Tanager
Coqui Frog
Canyon Bat
Slender Salamander
Image Sources: FWS, NPS
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LANDCOUNTERPOINT This interest started in September 2018 as an initial scoping review to study a city in the History of the Urban Form Class. The Fall Semester Project culminated in an overview of the history, development, and value of the Los Angeles Urban Form through a paper titled: LOS ANGELES: THE SHAPE OF THE CITY AND ITS UNCONVENTIONAL GROWTH. To understand the sensory experience of the project, recordings were taken through a high-definition recorder. The chosen sites and routes were determined by cultural highlights of the city and the citizen-science driven approach as seen through the iNaturalist observations. Recordings were taken for the following conditions: [stormwater] Upland, Networks, Shorelines, [cultural] historic sites, urban green spaces, architectural bridges, [infrastructural] bridges, ports, freeways and roads. Site observations were taken Los Angeles between March 1st to 10th, 2019.
New York Soundscape Depiction of sound experinces in the city of New York. Led by Karen van Lengen (Source: Cooper Hewitt)
Over 2.5 hours of data recordings were captured. Sound clips were analyzed using Adobe Audacity. To continue the concept of a soundtrack, each recording was limited to no more than 6 mins but no less than 1.5 mins. Each site was given a “sound profile,” identifying key characteristics that define the space based on the raw sound file. Four key tracks were selected as experimental sites, while twelve analysis tracks provided information on ecological, human, and infrastructural soundscapes. The four key tracks were remixed to meet a potential future design criteria, therefore theorizing the soundscape of a landscape intervention. Each track in the soundtrack of the watershed was analyzed and developed as a potential visualization. By investigating the role of visualized sound through the Cooper Hewitt’s The Senses: Design Beyond Visions and Scentscape provided by artist Kate McLean, initial experimentations were developed as concepts for visualization. The image on the right is an example of
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Scentscape - Singapore Citizen driven mapping of urban olfactory experiences. Led by Kate McLean (Source: Sensory Maps)
CITIES ARE LOUD!!!
Analysis and Track Mixing using Adobe Audition.
the initial sketches derived from the sensory experience felt by the sound profiles. Throughout this study, sensory exercises delved into the conceptual representation of textured classical music, exploring the role of art in representation, and experimenting with the role of abstracted landscape as a design process tool. After studying representation techniques, the four chosen experimental sites were rendered to meet a future design based on existing soundscape and contextual developments. Each scene was then placed through a predictive sensory experience, providing a comparison for each change perceived. The final product of this studyis a series of analysis scenes and abstractions, followed by experimentation in the landscape supported by a mixed soundtrack through the process of these explorations in the urban watershed. Experimenting Representation Sketch Attempts to identify gestures in sound and how sound constructs shape and vivid color expressions.
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MUSIC ON CANVAS Analyzing sound from the classical greats of music. By listening to the distinct gestures made by the interpreters and composer, I attempted to capture the shape and texture of these expressions.
Symphony No. 3 “Organ” Mvt. III
Camille Saint-Saëns, France (1835-1921) Twinkles in a juxstoposition of organs. The orchestra accompanies the organ to end the symphony.
The Firebird
Igor Stravinsky, Russia (1882-1971) Dual interpretation from the ballet and Fantasia 2000. A magical quarrel that metaphors the power of natural systems.
Symphony No. 5 Mvt. V
Gustav Mahler, Germany (1835-1921) “Nobody understood it. I wish I could conduct the first performance fifty years after my death.” - Mahler After Conducting his piece for the first time.
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ANALYZING THE CITY’S TRACKS Nestled withing harsh terrain and its sprawling urban form, the city offers distinct urban naturescapes that add sound complexity to its already dynamic soundtrack. Locations were chosen based on their ecological capital as observed by citizen scientists through iNaturalist and its cultural centers. These scenes were studied to experiment how distinct these spaces are by giving their soundscape form and visual context. Each exercise ranges from a spatial analysis to an abstract analysis derived from the narrative sensory experience methods observed by others through research. These methods provided an example on how diverse sensory experiences are observed.
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4. NATURE AT ITS LOUDEST
8. PARALLELS
6.TOURIST TEXTURES
5. INFRASTRUCTURE VEINS 7. SURROUNDED
1. BRIDGES
3. CULTURAL DYNAMICS
2. PORTS + PARKS
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BRIDGES A multitude of bridges cross the Los Angeles River, each with an iconic sense of architecture. This scene reveals a channelized point of the river at the North Broadway Bridge. Architectural Artist Lauren Bon has proposed a water wheel at this location, symbolizing a piercing in the straitjacket of the river. Sensing this space, the water sound texture resembled that of a constraint freeway, where it is confined by the infrastructural gesture at its center, surrounded by a concrete straitjacket and symmetrical industrial networks. Context provides an ambiance of freeway, pierced by urban ecology solos.
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LAND-COUNTERPOINT
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PORTS + PARKS Welmington Park, at the confluence of the mouth of of the Los Angeles River and the Dominguez Channel, facing the nation’s busiest port, this space juxtoposes an enthinically vibrant neighborhood along an economic pillar of the US Economy. The sense of this space reveals a moment of juxtoposed economic vibrancy and pollution to resilient community dynamics in an area framed by industry, textured by ocean winds, and the persistance of resident placemaking. All these sensed obervations paint a picture of the activity diversity found and how each sound fights to dominate the other.
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LAND-COUNTERPOINT
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CULTURAL DYNAMICS El Pueblo de Los Angeles... or Calle Olvera, a dynamic and vibrant historic center marking the origions of the city since the start of the Spanish Missions in the 1700s. This place is a platform for Mexican Cultural Identity. This scene captures a dance party. The essence of the California Coastline is one marked by diversity. As an ecology, the diversity of the city has shaped its identity. These senses are guided by foods from Mexico, Korea, China, and many other places, awed by the arts, and dazzeled by the many languages heard on the sidewalk. Olvera Street acts as platform that supports these distinct cultural activities and export an image of cultural diversity and power to visitors.
LANDSCAPE IS BRIGHT Can we see sound? Musician, Myles de Bastion explored ways to connect instrumentation to visual representation and people with hearing disabilities to musical expression. Playing with the sense and visualizing them provide others information on these expressions. The musician’s medium was light, measuring how frequencies of sound influence the depiction of light. Sound then is also felt as well a seen. Applied to a culturally vibrant space, in this representation, exploring how to convey the excitement seen and heard from this space becomes a challenge. The epicenter of this drawing symbolizes a cultural source that spreads throughout the site like an energy. It makes sense as an experience, how we as humans react to these unexpected moments of joyous congregations of people. See images in following pages that depict these cultural elements attempted to be portrayed. Cymatic Star (2016)
Myles de Bastion, UK/USA Music as a visualization, connecting espression from instruments to light. (Image Source: Portland Art Museum) 21
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CALLE OLVERA 23
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EL PUEBLO LAND-COUNTERPOINT
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NATURE AT ITS LOUDEST The Sepulveda Basin remains as one of the few areas along the river to escape a concrete fate. The immense green area sits surrounded by the built environment of the valley. Nearby Burbank Airport removes the sense of a purely natural environment, breaking through the green sense of this place. Nature here is LOUD. A post-storm event Bull Creek engulfs parks with water music, while the city’s proud singing-birds unapologetically sound their presence. The wealth of green space and proximity to the river network add a different wildlife diversity. The contributions of wildlife add new shape to the soundtrack of this place. Through the voices of insects, the rustling of birds within vegetation, and the uses of recreational space by the public, this area becomes a symphony of sounds in competition.
LANDSCAPE SPEAKS VOLUMES Landscape cannot be static but it has scars. Exploring the role of art in the landscape through its various interpretations, Julie Mehretu provides a new metaphor medium, where what we imagine as pristine is littered by loud scars. Using the pristine images from the Hudson River Valley, the artist explores how a collaboration between music and history provide a sense of the politicized landscape. Applying this to the Sepulveda Basin, the role of water is highly controversial in the region. The straitjacketing of the river solved the issue of flooding, placing humans as the chief engineers. Despite this, urban nature persists in the area. Politicizing landscape begins to explore what sounds we actually want to her. In this analysis, the selection was to favor natural struggles against the concrete mold of the city, but despite its strong presence, the urban environment and its many forces penetrate a natural canvas. HOWL, Pt. 1 (2017)
Julie Mehretu, US/Ethiopia (b. 1970) Tranquility of the National Parks, resonated by disruption of annihilations and conquerings from American History. 25
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LAND-COUNTERPOINT
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INFRASTRUCTURE VEINS Within the proximity of Downtown LA, Los Angeles State Historic Park is one of the newest green spaces. The METRO Gold Line passes on the fringes of the park, as the city continually tries to build out its public transit system. On the edges of the LA River, this park may function as a patch for local wildlife. In a bowl-shape topography, this space captures distinct sounds from the nearby neighborhoods, boulevards, elevated mass transit system, causing sudden bursts of sound textures as these elements become active. Nestled within this is the chirping of wildlife and the constant contact between humans and material grounds.
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LAND-COUNTERPOINT
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TOURIST TEXTURES Griffith Park, an icon as seen from the movies and a platform to experience the magnitude of Los Angeles. Los Angeles, as coined by John McPhee, is a city against the mountains. Its steep topography rips through the city, making it an ecosystem hotspot, and adding vulnerability to strong rain events. Despite this, Griffith Park is a platform for the world city. Languages from all over the world confer to this meaningful spot that deliver that imagination of California constructed by film. In a city that drives everywhere, walking up mountains becomes a normal occurrence. The experience of a structured yet very natural place like Griffith Park delivers a sensory taste that echoes the city but giving an audience member experience .
LANDSCAPE VOLUMES OPACITY If landscape is our medium as artists, and art is an expression, how can visualizations be inclusive? How can landscape designers think about the experience of the places we image for those who are visually impaired? Keith Salmon (painting on the right), reveals how art can be derived from the sensory experience of soundscape. Listening to a John Bramblitt interview, art is an expression and art through the senses constructs perceived textures that are unique to the individual. Through this exercise, this representation begins to wonder about the texture of wind and the relationship of it crashing into vegetation. It looks at the material being stepped on. Material is not static physically, as a sound this burst of material, as it comes into contact with footsteps, disrupts the ambiance of a place, alongside the glows of chirping chants by those who call Griffith Park home. Glenn Sanox (2018)
Keith Salmon, Scotland (b. 1959) “Painting with Sound� Oil and Acrylic on Canvas. Legally blind artist on an audio visual exploration. 29
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LAND-COUNTERPOINT
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GRIFFITH PARK LAND-COUNTERPOINT
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SURROUNDED Echo Park, one of the most ethnically diverse neighborhoods in the city. It includes a park at its center, functioning as a reservoir in a region that highly values water. Surrounded by Glendale and Sunset Blvds, the 101 and Alvarado St, the park sits at an important transit junction. Despite this spatial situation, the park, an isolated green space within park-deficient LA, functions as a confluence of activities for people and the urban wild. The park includes a large water feature, that permeates the sounds of concrete-freeway LA and within it, works as a placemaking platform supporting play, leisure, and an expressive diversity accounted by the differences in language and vegetation alongside a hardscape oasis.
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PARALLELS Studio/Universal City, at the foot hills of the Santa Monica Mountains, the riverwalk connects these neighborhoods, removing residents from the congestion of Ventura Blvd. The “submerged� effect, provides a distinct green oasis where traffic is overpowered by the sounds of a post-stormevent flow. In the center of the LA River Watershed, the runoff from the headwaters and nearby, complex creek network enter this confluence, providing a sound halo effect. Hidden between the river and the bustling commercial district, the green space houses urban wild, making the vegetation metaphor speakers in the landscape.
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LAND-COUNTERPOINT
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COMPOSING SOUNDSCAPE Cities are loud! And the sense can be vivid! After a series of sensory exercises, this study begins to focus on an idea of predictive landscapes. As designers, we make decisions that we render into beautiful, sometime ultra-imaginative places. Yet, we forget that our decisions impact the senses of a place with the potential of affecting an entire urban regional experience. Studying four conditions along the Los Angeles River: Headwaters, Corridors, Patches, and Outlets, each analysis is derived from the soundscape profile captured. From there, a predictive image is generated based on design decisions, this will have a direct impact on the remixing of the existing soundtrack. Through this predictive soundtrack, the senses are tested to derive how the experience may change in the landscape. By following this process, the study attempts to be predictive of design choices, focusing on how changes are perceived through the auditory and visual senses.
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HEADWATERS
CORRIDORS PATCHES
OUTLETS
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HEADWATERS The birthplace of the Los Angeles River at the confluence of the Arroyo Calabasas and the Bull Creek. During a storm event, observing the initial flush into the river, the feeding creeks mark the starting point of the river’s straitjacket. Surrounded by the urbanity of the Valley, this segment of the river featured a riverwalk, adorned by an edge green condition. The strongs sounds of traffic congestion and typical low-medium residential form provided a suburban ambiance. Despite the endless concrete, urban nature demonstrated a presence, piercing through the loudness of urbanity. The Headwaters mark an important site of the watershed. It is the source of the river and its context is important to understand conditions downstream. This area of the city continually sees development in the river has been a focus since the inception of the LA River Master Plan.
LAND-IMPROV
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GREEN EDGE HOUSING TRAFFIC ENTRIES
RIPPLES
CURRENT CONDITION 41
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CURRENT SENSES LAND-IMPROV
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NEW DEVELOPMENTS ACTIVE PROGRAM A GREEN SOFT EDGE
NEW SOFT BOTTOMS
PREDICTED CONDITION 43
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PREDICTED SENSES LAND-IMPROV
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CORRIDORS Located in a soft-bottom area in the Glendale Narrows, the Bow Tie Project is a partnership between the California State Parks and the Clockshop. This partnership has sparked over 35 artists projects and events. This area remains unique as it has limited accessibility from freeway overpasses and industrial railroad corridors. Nevertheless, the area is flourishing with urban plantings that have pierced through the harsh concrete environment associated with the city. The surrounding context gives an ambiance and a sense of busy. Despite this, the proximity to the soft-bottom area and the stunning views with the textures provided by the wind sways of resilient vegetation, the elements of urban nature are persistent and decorated by artistic expressions. As a historic industrial corridor, new uses and the urban nature growth through vacancy is a common typology in postindustrial cities, which is an odd category as Los Angeles is the current manufacturing captial of the US.
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RAIL
ARTS INDUSTRIAL LEGACY
FREEWAY/CITY
SOFT-BOTTOMS
CURRENT CONDITION 47
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CURRENT SENSES LAND-IMPROV
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ACTIVE RECREATION A SOFTER EDGE
PROGRAMMED MOVES
PREDICTED CONDITION 49
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PATCHES Rio de Los Angeles State Park does not directly border Rio de Los Angeles! This park provided an added green space in a park-deficient area of the city. The Taylor Rail Yard, adjacent to the park, was the former headquarters of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company. Understanding urban ecology from Forman (2014), we know that railroad corridors are an ecological scar on the environment. The Master Plan of the River calls for new added green spaces along the historic railroad yards, as they occupy large areas of land and need environmental remediation. Already, Rio de Los Angeles Park provided essential noticeable habitat for urban wildlife. An expanse of this green space along the river and the Glendale Narrows Soft-Bottoms would add a new habitat space along an important corridor. This expansion then creates a new green front towards the ambiance of freeway, changing the conventional industrial relationship with the river.
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FREEWAY HORIZON
VOLUNTEER VEGETATION RAILROAD YARD LEGACY
PARK EDGE CONDITION
CURRENT CONDITION 53
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CURRENT SENSES LAND-IMPROV
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A NEW GREEN SPACE MINIMAL PATHWAY DISTURBANCES
RIVERFRONT ACCESS
PREDICTED CONDITION 55
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OUTLETS The largest port in the US is located at the outlet of the Los Angeles River. Not only is the city a confluence of ethnic and ecological diversities, but it is a hub that connects West to East as a global platform. The California Coastline is vulnerable to sea level rise. The California Coastline houses numerous economic activities as well as ecosystems. Rising sea levels places countless industrial activities at risk of flooding and thus leading to contamination. The image of California is defined by its beautiful coastline that juxtaposes along steep mountains. As sea level rises, the infrastructure systems along the coastline will need to adapt towards a resilient plan. For many years, the city has been a master at controlling its natural forces. In this case, the city will have to understand how to harmonize this relationship. The new Port of Los Angeles Area will need to respond to surges and decisions would need to be taken to decide between hard- or soft-edges. A new softedge may give the coastline ecosystem a new opportunity to once again flourish. At the same time, a new relationship between the water and the industry places new increased risks for contamination through conventional practices.
LAND-IMPROV
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PORT OF LOS ANGELES FREEWAY BRIDGE
COASTAL PARK HABITAT
LONG BEACH
OCEAN MEETS RIVER
CURRENT CONDITION 59
CITIES ARE LOUD!!!
CURRENT SENSES LAND-IMPROV
60
A NEW COASTLINE
A 6-FOOT SEA LEVEL RISE
A SOFT-EDGE HABITAT
PREDICTED CONDITION 61
CITIES ARE LOUD!!!
PREDICTED SENSES LAND-IMPROV
62
LAND-CODA As designers we delve into new complexities about social and ecological systems that make up the score of the city. The purpose of this study was to investigate the built environment through the senses on the foundations of an ecologically-, research-oriented design program. In this processes, not only were the senses highlighted but questions about the inclusivity of design communication were investigated. Similar to music, landscape relies on the interpretation of others to define a sense of place. As designers, we see the impressive visualizations produced by top-tier firms, as fantasies of the landscape that attract investment. We fail to address how well we as designers can communicate and relate to an address inclusivity through the different ways of appreciation. In this study, soundscape was used to determine a sense of place and construct a predictive model framework towards experimentation of sensory experiences. The model framework lacks more concise ecological proof to support an accurate projection. It is the development of this mindset that becomes more meaningful in the design process asking; How do our design decisions affect the sensory experiences of people? As stated before in this study, art is a form of expression and those who place in a disability spectrum have demonstrated the power of the senses as a form of expression. As landscapes designers, we consider the McHargian ways of landscape design to heart, we embrace art in the landscape and lead through aesthetic, we follow strict regulations to promote safety, but would our designs be inclusive if we do not plunge into our own subjective sensory experiences? This study allowed vulnerability to the senses, to judge not by sight but by sound and through sound perceive textures, smells, and form. In a way, it is this subjectivity that allows designers to explore unknowns and appreciate what can be objectively categorized as a negative experience. Too many times we hear the conventional idea that cities are a dirty, loud nuisance that stresses, making us yearn for the countryside is an 63
ideal situation. But through the senses, we begin to feel all the complexities that make cities dynamic platforms for tolerance and imagination. Lastly, by engulfing ourselves in the senses, we may become advocates for those who experience landscape in different ways. Fleming’s (2019) article on the new green deal challenges landscape designers to be political advocates to ensure the change we promote. Our profession as composers of the built environment should have the responsibility to continually advocate for inclusive design on all parameters. The senses becomes an inclusive trait we all share through different extremes and mediums; they are something we share globally. There is an inherent human sense to feel and express regardless of abilities. If as designers we focus on the feel of a place, aren’t we accomplishing what we preach as sustainability? We must see ecosystems and human-systems as our orchestra, we provide the score, let them interpret the dynamics and express a symbolic moment in place and time.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Many thanks to Mark Lindquist for supporting this exploratory study, including encouragement to think more unconventionally and explore worlds outside of the realm of landscape architecture. Daniel Phillips for his continued support to think outside of conventional ecological thinking and fully embrace subjectivity. MaryCarol Hunter and Stan Jones for their guidance on information sources that added fact-based information to this project. Rebecca Smith for her help in thinking about abstract sound representation and the cultural values of soundscape. Derell Griffin and Michael Connors for their help in data collection in Los Angeles. Lastly, thanks to the Rackham Graduate School for their support through independent research grants.
CITIES ARE LOUD!!!
Works + Inspirations
Meyer, E. K. (2008). Sustaining beauty. The performance of appearance: A manifesto in three parts. Journal of landscape Architecture, 3(1), 6-23.
PAPERS + BOOKS
Pijanowski, B. C., Farina, A., Gage, S. H., Dumyahn, S. L., & Krause, B. L. (2011). What is soundscape ecology? An introduction and overview of an emerging new science. Landscape ecology, 26(9), 1213-1232.
Acosta, E., & Duval, G. (2017). 5 Hearing sonic textures. In Senses in Cities (pp. 71-85). Routledge. Banham, R. (1971). Los Angeles: the architecture of four ecologies. Allen Lane The Penguin Press. Beatley, T. (2013). Celebrating the natural soundscapes of cities. The Nature of Cities. Online post. Bieletto-Bueno, N. (2017). Noise, soundscape and heritage: Sound cartographies and urban segregation in twenty-first-century Mexico City. Journal of Urban Cultural Studies, 4(1-2), 107-126. Brown, B. V. (2018). After “the call”: a review of urban insect ecology trends from 2000–2017. Zoosymposia, 12(1), 4-17. Del Tredici, P., & Rueb, T. (2017). Other order: sound walk for an urban wild. Arnoldia, 75(1), 14-25. Desimini, J., Waldheim, C., & Mostafavi, M. (2016). Cartographic grounds: projecting the landscape imaginary. New York, NY: Princeton Architectural Press.
Pijanowski, B. C., Villanueva-Rivera, L. J., Dumyahn, S. L., Farina, A., Krause, B. L., Napoletano, B. M., ... & Pieretti, N. (2011). Soundscape ecology: the science of sound in the landscape. BioScience, 61(3), 203-216. Schleier, M. (2011). The Griffith Observatory in Ray’s Rebel Without a Cause (1955): mystical temple and scientific monument. Tchikine, A. (2018). When in Rome…. Places Journal. Truax, B., & Barrett, G. W. (2011). Soundscape in a context of acoustic and landscape ecology. Landscape Ecology, 26(9), 1201. Upton, D. (2007). Sound as landscape. Landscape Journal, 26(1), 24-35. US Census Bureau. (2012). Patterns of metropolitan and micropolitan population change: 2000 to 2010. Warren, P. S., Katti, M., Ermann, M., & Brazel, A. (2006). Urban bioacoustics: it’s not just noise. Animal behaviour, 71(3), 491-502.
Di Palma, V., & Robinson, A. (2018). Willful Waters. Places Journal. Elmqvist, T., & Pontén, E. (2013). Designing the Urban Soundscape. The Nature of Cities. Online post. Farina, A., & Pieretti, N. (2012). The soundscape ecology: A new frontier of landscape research and its application to islands and coastal systems. Journal of Marine and Island Cultures, 1(1), 21-26. Fleming, B. (2019). Design and the Green New Deal. Places Journal. Forman, R. T. (2014). Urban ecology: science of cities. Cambridge University Press. Fowler, M. D. (2013). Soundscape as a design strategy for landscape architectural praxis. Design Studies, 34(1), 111-128. Gomes, A. (2017). 9 A framework of analysis for urban sensory aesthetics. In Senses in Cities (pp. 138-153). Routledge. Hartop, E. A., Brown, B. V., & Disney, R. H. L. (2015). Opportunity in our ignorance: urban biodiversity study reveals 30 new species and one new Nearctic record for Megaselia (Diptera: Phoridae) in Los Angeles (California, USA). Zootaxa, 3941(4), 451-484. Hise, G. (1999). Magnetic Los Angeles: Planning the twentieth-century metropolis. JHU Press. https://www.kcet.org/shows/lost-la/happy-birthday-los-angeles-but-is-the-storyof-the-citys-founding-a-myth Kostof, S. (1991). The city shaped: urban patterns and meaning throughout history. Bulfinch, Boston. Lindquist, M., & Lange, E. (2014). Sensory aspects of simulation and representation in landscape and environmental planning: a soundscape perspective. In Innovative technologies in urban mapping (pp. 93-106). Springer, Cham. Lindquist, M., Lange, E., & Kang, J. (2016). From 3D landscape visualization to environmental simulation: The contribution of sound to the perception of virtual environments. Landscape and Urban Planning, 148, 216-231. Loukaitou-Sideris, A. (2002). Regeneration of urban commercial strips: Ethnicity and space in three Los Angeles neighborhoods. Low, K. E., & Kalekin-Fishman, D. (2017). PART I Sensory inequalities. In Senses in Cities (pp. 21-66). Routledge.
Weidner, N. (2017). 8 Hybrid noise. In Senses in Cities (pp. 122-136). Routledge.
FILMS/VIDEO/MUSIC/PODCAST/ART Banham, R. (1972). Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles. BBC Films production. From, https://vimeo.com/22488225 Cooper Hewitt, The Senses: Design Beyond Vision: https://www.youtube.com/play list?list=PLqwPGOOIhKSDz4jg8xgZlU-CPkAabFZLl 22k Hz, Bird Song: https://www.20k.org/episodes/birdsong TED Talk, How to Truly Listen: https://www.ted.com/talks/evelyn_glennie_shows_ how_to_listen?language=en TED Talk, Design with the Blind in Mind: https://www.ted.com/talks/chris_ downey_design_with_the_blind_in_mind?language=en Vox, How sign language innovators are bringing music to the deaf: https://www. vox.com/videos/2017/3/27/15072526/asl-music-interpreter Soundscape Architecture, UVA: http://soundscape.iath.virginia.edu/ Music Composers: Igor Stravinsky, Camille Saint-Saens, Caroline Shaw, Odeza, Gustav Mahler, Bedrich Smetana, George Gershwin, Simon anf Garfunkel How a deaf musician helps others see sound: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=OdwXPZ4vu-c This painter is BLIND: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gllT4dcdjVU Politizied Landscape: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcM3lF4Es_s&t=
ONLINE LA Natural History Museum BioScan: https://nhm.org/site/activities-programs/ citizen-science/bioscan UC-Berkely Urbarum: http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/ iNaturalist: https://www.inaturalist.org/
GIS DATA • • • •
City of Los Angeles Open Data Los Angeles County iNaturalist US Census
McPhee, J. (1988). The control of nature: Los Angeles against the mountains. New Yorker Magazine, Incorporated.
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CITIES ARE LOUD!!! Roberto Astudillo Winter, 2019